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Mawlana Rumi Review

Mawlana Rumi Review

The Mawlana Rumi Review is a publication of the Rumi Institute, Near East University, Cyprus, and the Rumi Studies Group of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, UK.

The Mawlana Rumi Review is an academic review devoted to the life, thought, poetry and legacy of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273), Islam’s greatest Sufi poet and author of some 60,000 verses composed in the widest variety of metrical patterns ever used by any Persian poet. Rumi's mystical epic the Mathnawi, is, after the Qur’an, probably the most frequently commented-on work in all of Islamic literature. For the past 700 years he has enjoyed continuous celebrity across a number of continents. Over the past three decades, Rumi has also been the best-selling poet in North America, and today he is as famous in India, Iran and Afghanistan as he is in Tajikistan and Turkey (where he is considered to be Turkey’s national poet).

The Mawlana Rumi Review publishes articles, reports, review articles and book reviews in English and French. The editor welcomes articles on Rumi’s art of story-telling, poetic imagery, theology, spiritual psychology, ecumenism, erotic spirituality, pedagogy, hermeneutics, ethics, epistemology, prophetology, metaphysics, and cosmology, as well as on the heritage of Rumi’s thought in modern and medieval literary history and interpretation and commentary on his works such as the Mathnawi and Divan-i Shams-i Tabriz.

The Mawlana Rumi Review was launched at the British Library on 12 May 2010.

Read the news article.  
View the video.

Read the review of Mawlana Rumi Review, vol. I (2010) and vol. 2 (2011), by Hassan Lahouti in "Kitab-e Mah va Adabiyat" (1390 A.Hsh./2011); vol. 59, no. 173 (Tehran, Iran)
Read the report in Persian Cyrillic script 

View the video about the launch in English
View the video about the launch in Persian
Read a report about the launch on the BBC website in Persian

Editors and contributors

The Mawlana Rumi Review is edited by Dr Leonard Lewisohn (Senior Lecturer in Persian, IAIS) in coordination with an international team comprising eight Assistant Editors:

Dr. Leili Anvar-Chenderoff, INALCO, France 
Roderick Grierson, Near East University, Cyprus 
Prof. Fatemeh Keshavarz, University of Maryland, USA
Prof. Franklin Lewis, University of Chicago, USA 
Prof. James Morris, Boston College, USA
Dr. Shahram Pazouki, Institute of Philosophy, Iran 
Dr. Muhammad Isa Waley, The British Library, UK 
Prof. Alan Williams, University of Manchester, UK 

The review is served by an Advisory Council consisting of:

Prof. William Chittick, University of Stony Brook, USA
Prof. Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina, USA 
Dr. Husayn Muhyiddin Ghomshei, Tehran, Iran 
Prof. Bilal Kuşpınar, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey
Prof. Ian Netton, University of Exeter, UK
Dr. Saeed Zarrabi Zadeh, University of Erfurt, Germany

The Poetry Editor is Prof. Paul Losensky, Indiana University

Submissions and enquiries

Submissions 

All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor: 

Dr Leonard Lewisohn

Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies

University of Exeter

Stocker Road

Exeter EX4 4ND

UK

Email: l.lewisohn@exeter.ac.uk.

For General Enquiries about subscription, book reviews and advertisement in the review, please write to the Managing Editor: 

Yasin Salazar

119 Charterhouse Street

London EC1M 6AA
UK
Email: ysalazar@matmedia.org

To access the Publisher of the Mawlana Rumi Review, please go to:
Archetype website 

Payment and Subscription
Individuals and institutions who wish to purchase back volumes, order multiple copies or subscribe to the Mawlana Rumi Review can access this link:
www.mawlanarumireview.org

The Rumi Studies Group

The Rumi Studies Group supports scholarship, publication and research into the philosophical poetics, mystical teachings and legacy of Mawlana (an honorific meaning ‘Our master’) Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) - arguably the most important Sufi poet in the Islamic world. In the USA, Rumi has been at the best-selling poet for several decades now.

One of the most prolific poets in any language in the world, his lyrical output amounts to some 35,000 verses (3230 ghazals composed in the widest variety of metrical patterns ever used by any Persian poet), while his epic mystical work, the Mathnawi, totals over 25,000 verses.

In modern Turkey, even though all his works were in Persian, he is currently considered to be a Turkish national icon, his death-day celebrated by a special national holiday (Dec. 17th) every year, during which the President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries all gather in Konya (the city where he lived most of his life and died) to give speeches about his poetry, mysticism, importance and influence, and to watch the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi Sufi Order (originally founded by Rumi) perform their sacred dance. His poetry is also a source of national pride in Iran and Afghanistan, where his iconic cultural stature is akin to Shakespeare in Great Britain. While Rumi’s importance has been recognized in Persianate countries for over a century now (scholarship and research on his oeuvre is a large industry in Turkey and Iran), in the West his popularity has only recently reached a stage where a journal devoted to legacy and thought is demanded. For this reason, the Rumi Studies Group at the Centre of Persian and Iranian Studies at the IAIS and the Rumi Institute, Near East University, Cyprus, has inaugurated the publication of the Mawlana Rumi Review.